Code Of The Hunter
by Fire Mistress
Summary: Kagome Hirugashi is an out of work lingerie buyer in need of a job – any job. She can’t make rent and she’s forced to move back with her family. What could be worst? In desperation, she convinces her “friend” Houjo to hire her as a bounty hunter SesKag


**Title: **Code of the Hunter

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of these characters. They rightfully belong to their respective owner. The story is based of Janet Evanovish's Stephanie Plum series.

**Summary: **Kagome Hirugashi is an out-of work lingerie buyer in need of a job – any job. She can't make rent and she's forced to move back with her family. What could be worst? In desperation, she convinces her "friend" Houjo to hire her as a bounty hunter in the bond bail business. Never mind that she doesn't know what a bounty hunter does, and when she finds out it involves carrying a gun, sitting on stake outs and chasing dangerous people and demons down Tokyo's dark alleyways, she realizes the lingerie business didn't prepare her for this – or for the irresistible, arrogant demon Lord who will serve as her off-again, on-again partner in crime and trainer.

**Chapter 1: **The Route of Destiny

**D**estiny has a very funny way of intervening in people's lives. Sometimes, destiny can bring you fortune and good-will – more often than not, it doesn't. The way I see it, destiny has a very unhealthy infatuation with me since birth, and not necessarily in a good way. For the most part, destiny keeps dragging me into very tight and weird situations that make me wonder if they were created just for me.

My name is Kagome Hirugashi – a twenty-five years old college graduate who lives in a run-down apartment, in a mediocre neighborhood, with her cat Buyo as her only company ever since her marriage went down the toilet the day after her honeymoon five years ago. The way I see it, destiny seems to enjoy toying with me.

"Oh, and make sure you bring quilts and pillows. For some reason your grandfather keep taking my extra and Kami only knows what he is doing with them. As a matter of fact, I don't even want to find out," my mother had said over the phone. To tell you the truth, I wasn't so eager to find out, either.

I worked in a lingerie shop for three years now until today when I got my ass fired. As a result, I have absolutely no money for rent – which is why my mother suggested for me to move back in with her. To tell you the truth, the idea didn't appeal to me. It was pathetic enough that I lost my job. It would be even more so being 25-years old and living under my mother's roof – no matter the circumstance that brought me back there. So as soon as I hung the phone, I went job searching.

I graduated from college with a psychology degree and very mediocre grades. I was neither sporty nor artistic. As a matter of fact, I remember when I was sixteen and I tried out for my high school's musical. The following day a "Banned from this theater – Kagome Hirugashi" banner was posted outside the theater until my graduation day. That was when I said good-bye to my dreams of becoming a Broadway singer.

Perhaps my grades have been the reason why I've never found a job in my field. Not that school was never important to me, it was just that my thought were much rather spent someplace else – like my boyfriend at the time.

I took my CRX from the overcrowded parking lot of my apartment complex and headed to the nearest doughnut store. Throughout the course of my life I've found that the only remedy for disappointment was doughnuts – creamy, sugary doughnuts. After the failure of my day-old marriage, I wolfed down a dozen doughnuts in less than half hour. Fortunately, my mother's gene gives me the ability to do this and still be able to button down the top snap of my jeans. Now that's a lucky thing since I tend to eat a lot and exercise little.

Okay, I lied. I hate exercising so sue me. Last time I tried I walked outside my apartment complex, onto the parking lot, and back to my apartment complex. I gave up on trying exercising after that.

I parked my car right in front of Toshiya's Doughnuts and walked inside. Five minutes later I had a box of fresh doughnuts and a cup of coffee.

"Hey Kagome, I heard what happened!" I turned to find Anne waving at me – her five-year old baby girl holding her hand and looking like she rather be somewhere else but at Toshiya's.

Anne has been my best friend since I met her my freshmen year in high-school. She was a very shy, very thin and super smart girl. She hardly socialized back then, and I had a rather hard time trying to get her to open up to me. I was surprised when she decided not go to college and instead got married to one of the worst rebels in our schools. Now that I see her, I think she made the right choice. She has healthily gained a few more pounds after giving birth, lives in a beautiful house with her husband, and has three wonderful children while Kagome Hirugashi has no job, soon no apartment, is divorced and is about $80,000 yen in debt with school loans. Ah, destiny…

I smiled warmly, sat on an empty table and made space for her and her daughter to sit. "Hey Anne. How are you?"

"I've been good. I heard you got fired from Kinki's Fantasies. Is that true?"

I grimaced at the mention of my previous job. According to Sano, the store manager, he had fired me for lack of business. In reality however, he fired me to hire this dyed red hair with big fake boobs. And here I thought that I had completely forgotten about my misfortune, "Yeah…'fraid that's true."

"Do you have any more candidates for jobs?" Anne took a jelly doughnut from the bag she purchased, cut it into smaller pieces, and gave it to her daughter. My mouth watered at seeing the doughnut, and knowing I wasn't leaving any time soon, I dug into my box of doughnuts and began wolfing them down.

"No, not really," I said between bites, "and the last thing I want to do is move back with my mother and grandfather. They are going to drive me nuts!"

"Your grandfather still thinks he's a priest?"

When I was younger my grandfather had me believing that there were such things as demons. Whenever my mom would be off working, my grandfather would dress me up in Miko clothing and teach me chants. It wasn't until my grandfather almost burned down the Shrine trying to get rid of the "spirits" that my mom forbade him from doing any more of his "cleansing". Unknowingly to my mother, he still performed some of his rituals on the well and on his room. Supposedly, he felt the biggest demon presence coming from the well. Of course, I no longer believe in that.

"I doubt that'll ever change." I mumbled.

She smiled, then. "You know, I heard a rumor that Houjo was running a bail bond enforcement business and was looking for a file clerk. Why don't you give it a try?"

"Houjo?!" The last time I saw Houjo was when I was an idiot high-school student and was enamored with the idea of being in love. Houjo had claimed to be in love with me and I had foolishly believed him until the day before graduation when I found him bared-assed playing hide-the-salami with my arch-enemy Kikyo in one of girl's bathroom after school. Since then I refused to even look his way. "Do you remember what happened graduation day?"

"Yes, but maybe he feels sorry and, as a mean to apologize, gives you the job. Kami knows he tried before but you rebutted his attempts. Not that I blame you, I would've probably done the same had I been in your situation. Actually, I still think you were too nice. I would have cut his penis right then and pull that bitch by the hair. But whatever, that's not the point. The point is that you need a job and you can't afford to be picky about it."

What hurt was the fact that she was right. I couldn't afford to be picky. Not when it came to being evicted and thrown back into my family's house. I raised an eyebrow, "Do you think that'll work?"

She shrugged, "Can't tell. One thing is for sure, if the bastard doesn't want to give you the job you can always blackmail him with the you-know-what."

The you-know-what that Annie was referring to was the rumor that surged a couple of month ago. Houjo is married to an ex-boxer's daughter – Sherly something or other. Meaning he has to behave or else he was going to have to face Sherly's father. The rumor was that Houjo was having an affair with his previous file clerk. Thing was, Houjo's previous file clerk is a man. When the rumor began to spread Houjo's file clerk mysteriously disappeared. Now isn't that something? Thankfully – for him anyways – this rumor never reached his wife's ears or his father-in-law for that matter.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Of course!" Anne reassured, "What wife would like to find out that her husband has been cheating on her with a man? If he's not scared of her, he's definitely scared of her dad."

I nodded my head in silent agreement and took this bit of information for later use, if necessary. I took the last remaining doughnut, swallow it in two bites, and said my goodbyes. My next stop – Tokyo Bonding Corporation.

Tokyo Bonding Corporation had a bigger, more fanciful name than what the place really deserved. In reality, the building was smacked in the middle of the city. Because of this, it wasn't too grand. The building had only one floor – and for the looks of it – was about the same size as a two bedroom one bath apartment. The building was painted white and if you looked closely enough, you can see part of the painting chipping off. The inside was neat, but very empty. A mahogany, black sofa was placed on the right side. Two loveseats of the same material stood facing both corners of the sofa. There was a table on the middle with a vase full of fake flowers as decoration. My guess was Houjo was too cheap to keep replenishing the flowers once they died.

To the left of the room a lone desk stood. There whole bunch of file cabinets against the wall and two other doors which gave me the assumption that one belonged to the bathroom and the other to Houjo's office.

"Hi," I greeted the secretary, "I'm looking for Houjo."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"Eh…not really. I came about the clerk position."

"Oh, that!" she said, "Sorry to say hon, but someone just took the position this morning."

I felt my heart drop and again, cursed destiny, "Is there any way I can talk to Houjo? He's an old friend of mine."

She stared at me for a couple of minutes, shrugged and picked up the phone to call Houjo. A couple of minutes later a cursing Houjo came out of the office. He looked at me blankly and seconds after, recognition registered in his mind.

"Oh fuck, Kagome? What are you doing here?"

"I came looking for a job. I wanted to be a file clerk"

"Sorry, babe. That position just got taken. See ya."

He was about to go back to his office when I called out to him to stop, "What other positions do you have available?"

"Nothing that you can do, that's for sure."

"Oh, yeah? Try me."

He sighted, "Have you ever shot someone?"

That left me speechless for a bit, "Does shooting zombies in a video game count?"

He did an eye roll so big that I thought his pupils were going to stay up his brains, "Go home."

"No! I need this job!" he was about to close the door behind him when I was forced to pull out my stump card, "Don't make me go to your wife and tell her what happened between you and your previous file clerk!"

That stopped him short on his track and I was forcing myself not to smile. Guess the rumors were true. He signaled for me to go to his office and I did as I was told. He then closed the door behind him, sighted and plopped on his chair.

"How much do you know?" he asked.

"Enough to know that Sherly's father is not going to be happy."

"Fine. I have am currently seeking for a Bond Enforcer Agent. Are you up to the job?"

"Yes! When do I start?"

"Do you even know what a Bond Enforcer Agent is?"

"Nope!" I said with a smile, "But I'm a fast learner"

He shook his head sadly murmuring something along the lines of _poor fool _and picked up the phone. A few minutes later, his secretary walked through the door.

"Kagome Hirugashi will be starting today as a Bond Enforcer Agent. Please give her the necessary equipments and get Sesshomaru here. She's going to need a _whole_ lot of training."

Houjo's secretary bowed and walked me out the door.

"My name is Ashiya. It's a pleasure to meet you Kagome"

Ashiya had short hair the color of sand. She looked to be a couple of years older than me, a couple of pounds heavier, a couple of inches shorter, and a couple of cups bigger. Her smile was friendly enough and I allow myself to relax. I could definitely get along with this woman.

Ashiya opened her cabinet and pulled out a .38. This she gave to me along with a hand knife, a couple cases of bullets, a stunt-gun and a bag to store them all. I looked at her, perplexed.

"What is this?"

"Your equipment. Hopefully you won't be forced to use it."

"What exactly is a Bond Enforcer Agent?" I asked.

She stopped momentarily for what she was doing and looked at me, surprised. "You mean, you don't know?"

I shrugged, "Not really."

Ashiya raised her eyebrow, looked back at Houjo's closed door, scratched her hair and picked up the phone.

"Sesshomaru, Houjo needs your assistance. He needs you here immediately," And hung up.

I looked at the phone curiously, "Who's Sesshomaru?"

"He's another Bond Enforcer Agent like you. He's going to be your mentor and partner for the first couple of assignments until you get the hang of it – if you ever do. He's very experience, very sexy, very arrogant and very rude so just ignore him."

I nodded numbly. When I was about to ask her the question again of what a Bond Agent Enforcer was the door opened and in came what looked at first glance like a God.

"Kagome, I would like you to meet your new partner, Sesshomaru."

Holy fucking shit, she was not joking…

**AN: **You see that pull-down menu at the bottom? This author LOVES that pull down menu.

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